Articles

April 21, 2013
 

THE SKED: Misfit Toys Scorecard – “Smash” vs. “Vegas”

 

This is what it came to for SMASH and VEGAS, both starry, expensive shows that once had Emmy lights glittering in their eyes:  fighting it out for 3rd place at 8PM on a Saturday night.  Behind the 1.5 for a UFC match on FOX, behind even the 0.7 for ABC’s misbegotten game show BET ON MY BABY, the scraps of honor belonged to Vegas, which earned a 0.5 (despite being a last-minute postponement from Friday) for an episode featuring a bright guest star turn by Melinda Clarke as regular Sarah Jones’s sultry mother.  Poor SMASH, despite an hour in which “Bombshell” finally had its opening night, only managed a 0.4, the night’s lowest demo rating.  In total viewers, a metric that favors older-skewing CBS, it wasn’t even close, as Vegas was actually the most-watched show in its hour with 4.3M viewers, while Smash was dead last for the night with 1.9M.  The big song in Smash‘s episode last night was called “Don’t Forget Me” (wonderfully sung by Megan Hilty, by the way), and it was more like a plea than an anthem.

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."